We have Learned it is Better to Give than Receive—R Fritz
We need to look at the people around us and talk and listen to them to see how they are doing. We are put in places and situations to be a blessing for other people. We talk to people all the time not thinking about what God wants us to do or we are not listening for what the Holy Spirit tries to tell us. If we love God, we will obey him. John 14:20-21 says and this is Jesus speaking “At that day ye shall know that I am in my father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest (reveal) myself to him.” If we love God, our words and actions will be seen, and God will reveal himself to us. For those who are looking for God this is the answer where God will show us who he is. For me I wanted to show what I would do for God and then the Holy Spirit spoke to me that he would teach me all things. When we get our life squared away or moving in the right direction, then we can be a help to people and give money, wisdom, or time to them and be a resource to them.
Sometimes we need to just listen to people, which is what I do as a chaplain. Things can happen so quickly in our lives with little time to figure out what is best. We need time to digest all issues and answers where I give insight into what the Holy Spirit gives me. We let men answer our questions when if we would wait a day or a couple of hours the Holy Spirit would answer with the best answer. I just had a two-hundred-mile round trip ride to see somebody over ninety years old before the end of the year. I went with another person who was concerned about the weather. I told them we needed to go, then said I would look at the weather. What they did not know was I prayed that God would take care of the weather wherever we went we would have no issues. We went for lunch and what I found out was that this person was having a problem with forgiveness and waited two months before this person said something to us. This person understood what the Bible said using a couple of verses. I told this person they did not have to resight a Bible verse to God. We just need to ask for forgiveness, repent and we will be forgiven. That was not what this person was looking for. They did not understand the spiritual part about God being a Spirit and we need to speak to him through our spirit. This person told us that they were trying to understand with their understanding and could not. The problem was this person did not have peace and believed they were not forgiven because they did not have peace. We talked about the Holy Spirit lives in us or can come upon us. We talked about verses about the Holy Spirit. John 14:26-27 and this is Jesus speaking “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Peace resides in the Holy Spirit. I took the time to talk how the Holy Spirit speaks to us through our thoughts and Satan also speaks to us the same way and we certainly hear Satan. I also gave stories about people who I talked to about the Holy Spirit where they believed God did not talk to them, the next time I saw them they told me that God did speak to them. Before we left the Holy Spirit touched this person and had peace and this person thanked us for coming many times. I usually do not know what God has planned. I do not let the weather stop me which is how Satan stops a lot of people. The ride home was supposed to be snowy, it was sunshine. We are tested to see if we will listen and trust God when God needs us, the question I ask is do we pass the test? Let me tell you that there was a time years ago that I failed the test, I just asked God to give me another chance, and I would get what needs to be done next time. God knew I needed to overcome fear.
The problem we do not understand is we need to fight in spirit. We do what we always have done, and we do not know how to fight in the spirit. Our spirit and the Holy Spirit become one when we surrender yet either we do not know or we forget that in the battle. We try to fight a spiritual battle in the flesh and we will lose; I learned many times because Satan would bait me into fighting in the flesh and I lost every time. I became wiser, learned from this experience, and did not take that same bait. God is a Spirit and we must worship him in spirit. John 4:24 says and this is Jesus speaking “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” We must worship him in the spirit; there is no other way. Almost twenty-five years ago when I first chose Jesus, I was forced to fight spiritual battles in the flesh as I did not know any better until I was told I needed to fight in the spirit as nobody could tell me how to do that. I eventually found out first from a man God sent me, to then when the Holy Spirit showed me.
I give that same wisdom to all I can because we see so many people battling in the flesh because they did not know our battles are in the spirit. We see things in the flesh with our eyes, and we automatically fight in the flesh. Whether it be physical or mental, our prayers and words spoken out through the Holy Spirit will not come back void, they will do exactly what they were meant to do. Isaiah 55:11-12 says, “So shall my words be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” The words spoken out our mouth through the Holy Spirit will come to pass. This is the spiritual battle we win. This is what I give to those who will receive it. Be blessed and fight the spiritual battle for people that cannot, especially this time of year. God Bless.
